With two 2-0 results on the trot, why should this home match against
Hull City be any different ??

Well, for a start, the Tigers
are crafted in the image of their manager, Steve Bruce. Hard
and not pretty. So, expect a lot of men back behind the ball
with Tom Huddlestone's passing out of the last third being their
weapon of choice to release Sone Aluko or Robbie Brady if the are
fit enough to start after a shin and a hip injury respectively.
Injuries have hit the Yorkshire side early and their squad will be
tested, as they are also missing midfield creator and club captain,
Robert Koren, along with the on loan Sunderland striker Danny
Graham. Steve Harper will be coming in to cover for the thigh
injured Alan McGregor and another on the sidelines is James Chester
with a hamstring pull.

Hull have been hard to beat
this season and this game will prove no different, as they are well
drilled and get a lot of men back behind the ball, so Spurs will
have to work hard in midfield to pull the Tigers players out of
shape. In doing so, they will need to make sure that there is
enough attention to the defensive side of our game, with Paulinho
likely to be partnered by Sandro once more, allowing the new signing
to give rein to his forward runs from deep.

Harper is an experienced
keeper, but was content to be number two for long periods at
Newcastle United before leaving this summer after being granted a
testimonial. He can be a useful stopper, but his attention to
angles is not all it should be and for a skilled striker like
Roberto Soldado, he might be able to find a way past the goalie, now
he has found his scoring form in open play. It was always
going to happen, but the Press were starting to get on his back,
with his goal at Villa coming at the right time.

The Hull defence have been
working well as a unit, with Curtis Davies signed from Birmingham
City to lead the team from centre-half. His aerial presence
can be effective at both ends of the pitch, but with his partnership
with James Chester, the former Man U youth teamer, being broken, he
will perhaps have former United man Paul McShane or manager's son
Alex alongside him or maybe Abdoulaye Faye with him in the middle,
although he now is losing a bit of pace. The full back
positions will see two of three and with Spurs quick on the wings,
they might be chosen on those grounds. Liam Rosenior and
Maynor Figueroa are the most likely candidates to fill in the wide
positions in the back four.

Midfield is where the Tigers
are ish. Teams have to work hard to get through them and
missing Koren and Livermore, they will be without two regulars, who
have impressed in the Premier League season so far. Jake
cannot play against Spurs, so the middle five will look like this
... Huddlestone, Elmohamady, George Boyd and Irishman David Mayler.
Boyd has shown great skill in his progress through Peterborough and
Hull after leaving Stevenage, but might find things harder in the
top flight. Elmohamady is a tricky runner with the ball (and a weird
dancer from his antics in front of the camera when Hull were
promoted last season), but he can cross well from wide positions,

If Brady and Aluko don't
make it, then there may be an opportunity for Gedo, an Egyptian
striker who was on loan last season. Brady is the top scorer
and Aluko is capable of scoring outrageously fine goals, but often
can be pushed out of the game too easily. Other striking
options include Yannick Sagbo, Aaron McLean, German Nick Proschwitz
and Calaum Jahraldo-Martin, who hails from Antigua and Barbuda.

With injuries playing their
part, it looks on paper as if Spurs should stroll to victory in this
match, but in the last two visits to the Lane, Hull have held Spurs
goal-less and will be aiming to do the same again, but this Spurs
side has patience, which might be tested on Sunday. It will be
vital to try to stretch the Hull back four and midfield, with
sharper moves getting the ball out wide, where Andros Townsend and
Kyle Walker should renew their partnership n the right wing after
both being rested in the Europa League match mid-week.

I think Tottenham will win,
but it won't be the fluid football we like to see, but more of a war
of attrition.

HULL CITY TEAM NEWS :
Alan McGregor misses out in goal, with Steve Harper coming in as
cover for the thigh strain victim, while, at the other end of the
pitch, both Sone Aluko and Robbie Brady face late tests on their
shin and hip injuries. Also missing are central defender James
Chester with a hamstring strain, Robert Koren (ankle), Danny Graham
(knee) and Jake Livermore cannot play as he is on loan from Spurs.

COVERAGE :

TV
Match of the Day 2 (BBC 2) - Sunday 22.35 - 23.35
(highlights) Also available online.
For coverage in all parts of the world, check
hereand
here.

Some dogs are just like their
owners. The match preview was right, Hull are Steve Bruce. Cynical,
defensively minded and ugly in their approach. But what they got was
what they deserved. No points in a 1-0 win for Spurs.

Let's see …

Curtis Davies almost finishes his career with a late lunge on Andros
Townsend, who had left him for dead and gets his studs stuck in the
turf.

Paul McShane grappling with Roberto Soldado every time he went near
the ball.

David Meyler showing flagrant disregard for the laws of the game and
only got booked when he threw the ball away to waste time.

Ahmed Elmohamady might be 'crazy' when they win, but his acting out
of the fact that, in his honest opinion, the linesman needed glasses
by putting his hands up to his eyes with his thumbs and forefingers
making the spectacles, should have received suitable punishment. And
if that is being sent away from the pitch, as happened to Bertie Bee
– the Burnley mascot – when he handed his mascot glasses to the
linesman the day before, then the same should have been applied to
Elmohamady's gesture. And I don't think that the linesman would have
admitted to not seeing it !!

Hull played much as some of us might have expected. Having got where
they are so far this season has been using tactics not too
dissimilar to Stoke and Bolton's in years gone by. Time wasting,
petty fouling, harassing referees and stifling anything that got
near their goal using whatever necessary. It was all a shame that
referee Michael Oliver was gullible and fell for everything they
tried.

This left Spurs with the massed defence of the Tigers, plus the
official to get past and it was a real surprise when he pointed to
the spot in the 79th minute. The Hull fans who derided Soldado
with chants of “What a waste of money” were left eating their words
when the aforementioned eagle-eyed Elmohamady got the ball on his
arm as Vertonghen's cross was heading for the goal-mouth. The
Spaniard strolled up to send the ball past Steve Harper with ice
cold precision. It was like watching Berbatov take penalties.

It had looked like Hull's
strangulation of the game might pay off for them until that point.

The visitors had their own
chances n a first half that saw Tottenham's pacy start slacken off
and the Tigers came back with spells of pressure and chances on goal.
Boyd brought a rush out to the edge of his box by Lloris to stop him
and the Spurs keeper also had to field a long shot from the same
player before turning a Sagbo shot away as the Hull forward came in
from his left. Chiriches was also well placed to coolly chest
the ball back to Lloris off the line when a shot had spun up off the
keeper in the first place in injury time at the end of the first
half. The Romanian and Michael Dawson both blocked efforts
from a Hull corner and Spurs looked up against it, but they soon
regained control of the game with possession, but little cutting
edge.

Before Hull's spell at the
Spurs end, their only chance had been a McShane header from a
Huddlestone free-kick, but a Tottenham free-kick swung in by Holtby
from the right wing was scooped over the top from inside the
six-yard box by Paulinho. The Brazilian was linking well with
Soldado. almost slipping him in between two defenders in the box,
but it was very tight. Just before that Paulinho's right wing
cross, when Spurs had moved the ball quicker to a wide position, was
just too far ahead of Roberto right in front of goal.

Huddlestone came within a
foot of a haircut,. when he crashed a cleared corner back on the
volley and it went just over Hugo's crossbar, but then when Spurs
broke, with Chiriches seeing that bringing the ball out from the
back might be a way to draw Hull players out, he was twice almost
hacked down before a free kick was given and Rosenior slammed the
ball away to waste time and got a booking for his troubles.
Much to his disgust. Unsurprisingly !! A free kick a
little later saw Kyle Walker slam the ball at goal and Harper used a
strong palm to beat the ball away as it looked like it might go into
the top of the net and Harper was nearly embarrassed when Soldado
charged down his clearance for the second time in the first half.
The ball went to Lewis Holtby, who controlled well on his chest, but
McShane got back to put him off enough to make him conceded a
free-kick.

Tottenham looked lively at
the start of the second half, with Hull looking content to sit back
and block their way. Ten minutes in, Andros passed in to
Soldado, just inside the box to the left and his deliberate low shot
was heading inside the post until Harper dived to turn it round for
a corner. Later in the half, Spurs were reduced to shooting
from long range, with Townsend, Paulinho and Dembele all going wide
to lesser or greater extents. That was before Meyler got
booked for time-wasting by throwing the ball away when Spurs got a
goal kick at one end and then Elmohamady was on hand to concede a
spot-kick at the other. Well, he wanted the officials to be
better at spotting things !! You sometimes have to be careful
what you wish for.

Eight minutes for time,
Andros Townsend raced away from Meyler and McShane on the right
wing, but, as he crossed, his momentum took him over the advertising
boards and down into the camera pit below. He was down there a
long time and with lots of the Spurs medial team and stretcher
bearers in attendance, the back board was brought out and it looked
very serious. A photographer was lead away by the medics
and then Townsend rose from the pits to be escorted around the
running track back to the bench, having had his hand bandaged.
With Spurs having used all their subs, it looked like it would be a
backs to the wall last few minutes, with all ten men back.
The young England man had other ideas and ran away from Shabaaz
Mughal and managed to get back onto the pitch to help the side hang
onto the lead.

The closest Hull came was
with two free-kicks from 20 yards out. The first saw
substitute Robbie Brady curl an innocuous shot which Lloris took
easily. The second, in the dying seconds of added on time, was
from Tom Huddlestone and it looked like it would be a typical return
by an ex-Spur, especially when he stepped up and cracked a fierce
drive at goal that seemed like it was heading into the top left
corner of Hugo's goal. The Spurs fans drew a collective sigh
of relief as the ball ended up in the Paxton Road end crowd and the
whistle blew when Lloris took the goal kick.

Hull fans celebrated like
they had won the cup, but the Spurs fans were obviously too negative
to go mad at the result, after AVB's comments about the team finding
it hard to play at home. Well, maybe, it is because the result
hides the fact that we were not easily able to break down Hull's
defence and having seen it be successful for West Ham, the fans can
foresee more of the same coming for the rest of the season.

For all the talk about the
penalty being fortunate, there have been some glaring errors against
Tottenham, with our goals over the lien which haven't been given and
other teams which have been given when they were not over the line.
Penalties go both ways, but having gone al last season without one,
even with Bale being upended on a regular basis, we were due a bit
of luck and that was what was needed in this match. However,
we need to work harder off the ball to break down teams who stick
ten men behind the ball and work on it fast, as opposition sides are
learning that they have a chance of they rock up at the Lane set up
like that.

Burton
Bradstock

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What you
thought

-

-.

-

-.

Other scores
during this week :

Aston Villa

0

Everton

2

Saturday

Crystal Palace

0

Arsenal

2

Saturday

Liverpool

4

West Bromwich Albion

1

Saturday

Manchester United

3

Stoke City

2

Saturday

Norwich City

0

Cardiff City

0

Saturday

Southampton

2

Fulham

0

Saturday

Chelsea

2

Manchester City

1

Sunday

Sunderland

2

Newcastle United

1

Sunday

Swansea City

0

West Ham United

0

Sunday

League Table

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

GD

1

Arsenal

9

7

1

1

20

9

22

+11

2

Chelsea

9

6

2

1

16

6

20

+10

3

Liverpool

9

6

2

1

17

8

20

+9

4

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

9

6

1

2

9

5

19

+4

5

Southampton

9

5

3

1

10

2

18

+8

6

Everton

9

5

3

1

14

10

18

+4

7

Manchester City

9

5

1

3

21

11

16

+10

8

Manchester United

9

4

2

3

14

12

14

+2

9

Swansea City

9

3

2

4

12

11

11

+1

10

Hull City

9

3

2

4

7

10

11

-2

11

Newcastle United

9

3

2

4

12

16

11

-4

12

West Bromwich Albion

9

2

4

3

8

10

10

-2

13

Aston Villa

9

3

1

5

9

12

10

-3

14

Fulham

9

3

1

5

9

12

10

-3

16

West Ham United

9

2

3

4

8

8

9

0

17

Cardiff City

9

2

3

4

8

13

9

-2

15

Stoke City

9

2

2

5

5

8

8

-3

18

Norwich City

9

2

2

5

6

13

8

-7

19

Sunderland

9

1

1

7

7

21

4

-14

20

Crystal Palace

9

1

0

8

6

19

3

-13

Position before match :
7th
Position after match : 4th
Position after the weekend : 4th